An Oregon couple is upset with United Airlines after their 15 year old daughter, who has autism, was escorted off of a flight by police. United cited ‘safety and comfort’ of passengers, though no one around the Oregon family felt threatened in any way.
FOX59 reported that Dr. Donna Beegle is a public speaker and has traveled with her 15-year-old daughter Juliette all around the world without ever having any issues.
On Tuesday, Dr. Beegle was traveling with her family back from Disney World. They were on a connecting flight from Houston to Portland when Juliette got overly hungry.
Dr. Beegle tried to get Juliette to eat some of the food she packed, but Juliette didn’t want any of it. Dr. Beegle told KATU that Juliette is clinically picky about the food she eats. Juliette is high-functioning but has extreme difficulty verbally communicating. “And I know her, when she gets over hungry or over thirsty she really struggles because she can’t tell us,” said Dr. Beegle.
So Dr. Beegle asked if they could purchase something hot from first class, and she says they were told “no.”
“And I said ok, fine we’ll get to the point where she’s crying and then you’re going to want to help her. And that’s when the attendant went and got a first class meal,” said Dr. Beegle.
The family says Juliette started to calm down and was watching a video when a member of the flight crew announced the plane would be making an emergency landing because of a passenger behavior issue.
Dr. Beegle retold the events to KATU. “The police said, ‘Well, you know, we’re going to have to ask you to leave the plane.’ And I said, ‘I don’t understand why? There’s no issue. What is the problem?’ And he said, ‘Well, the captain doesn’t feel comfortable flying to Portland with your daughter on the plane.’”
The family hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit. She says the purpose of the legal action is to encourage the carrier to better train their employees in understanding the needs of autistic children.
United Airline provided this written statement to KATU.
“After working to accommodate Dr. Beegle and her daughter during the flight, the crew made the best decision for the safety and comfort of all of our customers and elected to divert to Salt Lake City after the situation became disruptive. We rebooked the customers on a different carrier and the flight continued to Portland.”
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Photo courtesy of Google
this family has every right to be upset ..the whole event was handled badly by the flight crew…this young lady posed no threat other than maybe a “tantrum” action…and i’ve seen that on many flights by all types of children …don’t blame the police they were just there to do the job they were asked to do it wasn’t their fault
Excuse me! What if there wasn’t food as is often the case?!!! Above comment is asine!
But there was, so your ‘what if’ is irrelevant.
The Captain has every right to deny passage to anyone. This child has a condition that would eventually ware on all the other passenger’s nerves and the pilot saw fit to make a command decision. I’m sure was not easy for him but he was considering the entire cabin and ALL passengers. Frivolous lawsuit at best, they should know their daughters limitations and take responsibility for her. The airline accommodated on another flight and where is the gratitude? I understand the disappointment of not getting where they are going on time, but this is yet another case of “My child has autism, it’s all your fault!” Disgusting.